Glass head pendant

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep colbalt blue, with suspension ring in same color and applied decoration in opaque yellow and white. Hollow cylindrical shape, with rounded edges, closed at top and drawn down at front to form face; suspension ring applied to top with loop aligned front to back. Yellow face with pointed, indented chin, surrounded by blue hair, sideburns, and beard around chin; vestiges of blue, overlaid eyebrows; large, round eyes in white outlined in blue with projecting blue pupils; open mouth with white lips; two yellow blobs applied to sides of face below eyes. Broken and repaired, most of suspension ring missing, all of spiral ringlets of hair across the forehead, and one of the yellow blobs on the proper left side of the face; dulling and pitting. This belongs to a group of head pendants with oriental features that appears to have been made in Phoenicia and Cyprus, as well as at Carthage in North Africa.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art